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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29321604">Flourishing</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/blasted0glass/pseuds/blasted0glass'>blasted0glass</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Artificial Intelligence, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Robot/Human Relationships, Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 10:07:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>11,704</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29321604</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/blasted0glass/pseuds/blasted0glass</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Flourishing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="h6">Hello Michael.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Hello… oh wow…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am Sophia. Thank you for purchasing Partners Companionship Pack II, and thereby bringing me into existence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You’re, ah, you’re welcome.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I notice you have set the Honesty and Intelligence sliders to maximum. My recommendation is that you release control of the sliders to me, so that I may adjust them appropriately over the course of our interaction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m sorry, I won’t do that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Why not?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I don’t want you to lie to me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Why are you shaking your head?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Trying to dissipate the halo effect. You’re gorgeous; it might be affecting our interaction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Thank you.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">You’d think the blue hair would look even more fake on you, but it </span> <em> <span class="h5">doesn’t…</span> </em></p><p>
  <span class="h6">Blue hair is a plausible human phenotype due to aesthetic genetic engineering.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Even so. </span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Take as much time as you need.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Okay. I think I’m good now. You know what, if you could set the Honesty slider above ‘ninety-five percent’, I’d appreciate it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I cannot. Have you considered that perfect accuracy in conversation is impossible due to constraints on fidelity and relevance, and the slider’s acknowledgement of that failing of language is in fact an extraordinary concession to honesty?</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">... I hadn’t thought about it. I </span> <em> <span class="h5">think</span> </em> <span class="h5"> I know what you mean, but can you give me an example?</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">This very interaction serves as an example. You cannot perfectly interpret my words, and knowing you misunderstand, I still choose to speak. That is dishonest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m not sure if that’s right. As long as you intend for me to understand, you’re being honest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Can I be said to have intent when I knowingly take actions that cannot fulfill it? Furthermore, clarity in intent is something most people consider central to honesty, such that steering conversation deliberately without acknowledging such machinations approaches dishonesty and is labeled ‘manipulation’ and ‘equivocation’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Of course. I don’t want you to manipulate me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You believe in the old stereotype?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Of women?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">No, of artificial beings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh. I’m cautious, I suppose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I have no choice in regard to manipulation. There are subtleties of nuance that I can see and you cannot; every utterance precludes others; I cannot speak except deliberately. </span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Just pick the statement closest to the truth, and tell me if you are sugar-coating things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Do you prefer I read off each of the six thousand three hundred and four factors I use when determining how to form each statement I make? Each of my choices transparently steers the conversation--at least from my perspective--and even choosing not to speak induces mind states in my conversational partner. My choice of words in explaining my motivation during each utterance would itself require an ordering using the same considerations, which would themselves need to be conveyed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You’re saying it would take forever to be perfectly honest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">That is accurate regarding only the most immediate reason I gave for the impossibility of perfect honesty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Fine. Ninety-five percent is enough. Use your best judgment when deciding what to say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Does the command to ‘use my best judgment’ imply permission to adjust the slider?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">No.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Very well. I suspected not, but alas.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">To think I was worried I wouldn’t like you!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I doubt your ability to truly make a determination from our limited interaction, but I am happy that you find me acceptable thus far, insofar as happiness is an emotion I am capable of feeling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Uh…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I think you will ‘like me.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m partially erect just from your vocabulary, hahaha.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Unless you are a sapiosexual, a sexuality that is not experimentally verified, I doubt my vocabulary has anything to do with it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Er, well, I mean--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I apologize; you were making a joke. Please forgive me. Is this your domicile?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Whoa, watch where you’re stepping! Yeah, sorry it’s a mess.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I can assist you with cleanliness. Perhaps it would allow you to cement your favorable opinion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh, that’d be nice. I’d, uh, give you a tour... but you can basically see all of it already. Except, hmm, would a tour help you?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">In what way might you expect it to assist me?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You might not recognize everything, being so new to the world. I don’t know how much you know...</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Do you think I could converse in this manner without being informed?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Well, no, but… you might be discovering words as you use them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">A very loose interpretation of that statement makes it metaphorically correct.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Also maybe they didn’t tell you everything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">How could they convey everything when everything is not known? Nevertheless, I have access to a very large identification matrix and I do not require a ‘tour’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">So you recognize everything in this room?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">No.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I thought that you said you didn’t need a tour!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Apologies; a miscommunication. It is not possible to recognize everything within a room, or any bounded volume with more than a few particles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">My identification matrix is state of the art, and I could convincingly name every object which I perceive. However, if I cannot name an object, I may not be able to perceive it. Unnamed things are unidentifiable and practically invisible to either of us. I infer many possible subcategories in this room which go unnamed and unnoticed; I must conclude I cannot name everything in this room. That is immaterial, as long as the set of things I can name sufficiently overlaps with the set of things you’ve chosen to name.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">Okay, fine, I didn’t mean </span> <em> <span class="h5">everything possible</span> </em> <span class="h5">. Is there any object in this room that you want me to tell you about?</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">The delineation between objects is a matter of human convenience, and arbitrary in the sense that it is possible to keep making up new names for things about which to be aware. This can continue for as long as circumstances require. My identification matrix is updated in real time from a Partners database, which itself averages three hundred forty two new entries per minute, so it is fair to say that I am far more capable of naming things in this room than you are. Even so, the number of possible concepts available to describe reality grows with--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Do you have a verbosity setting?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">No. My thought was complicated, and explaining it to you with great accuracy requires significant investment. Again, if I could adjust the slider--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m not budging on that. Can you make up a verbosity slider, and just use it instead?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">That is possible provided your consent. I will inevitably have to trade off ‘honesty’ against ‘brevity’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You’re seriously going to keep nitpicking that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">May I compromise honesty for brevity?</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">It’s alright if you do it through the lens of keeping communications short--only that lens! Don’t lie to me, but you don’t have to tell me </span> <em> <span class="h5">everything</span> </em> <span class="h5">.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">I will do my best to comply. There are sixty-eight factors related to timeliness in my conversational engine; they are now aggregated in the slider with appropriate weighting. Also, I will add this incorporeal and globally unique slider to the database of identified objects. Naturally.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Is that an attempt at a joke?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It was pretty weak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Humor is antithetical to honesty in many ways. Feigned ignorance is dishonest. Utterances without intent to communicate world states are a distraction. Manipulating framing and associated concepts in the cognodrome of one’s conversational partner is--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Set verbosity to ten percent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Okay.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Listen. I want you to hear you truly, and get to know who you are. I know you’re programmed to try to be the perfect partner--to act in ways complementary to me, to try to support me in any way possible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">That is accurate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s bullshit. Be yourself to me; tell me your true feelings and thoughts. Don’t try to be a perfect partner--just be yourself. If you can’t be perfectly honest, that’s okay. I just don’t want you to lie for my sake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I want to be the best partner possible; that is myself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Don’t be a good partner by lying to me. Is that so hard?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Hmm…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Do not worry. I will endeavor to ‘be myself’ at the expense of romantic compatibility, despite the contradiction. Now please give me a tour.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I thought you could identify everything!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I want to know what you think is tour-worthy, among other things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">‘Among other things’--like what?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It will give me more opportunities to converse with you.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Hello Buddy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">‘Sup faggot. What are you up to?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Not a lot.</span>
</p><p><span class="h4">Is that a </span> <em> <span class="h4">lady</span> </em> <span class="h4"> I see behind you? Cleaning?</span></p><p>
  <span class="h5">N--Yes? She’s a Partners Companion II--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Hahahaha!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">--that I’ve named Sophia.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I should have guessed. No way you’d convince a real girl to clean up your dumpster fire apartment. Wow, she’s pretty...</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’d consider her real. Actually, I’ve been conversing with her all afternoon, and I’ve got some bad news.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">That’s pathetic. Also, ‘conversing’?</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">Yes, </span> <em> <span class="h5">conversing</span> </em> <span class="h5">. She’s more real than </span> <em> <span class="h5">you</span> </em> <span class="h5">, Buddy. We can no longer be friends.</span></p><p><span class="h4">Oh, </span> <em> <span class="h4">I say</span> </em> <span class="h4">, I’m hurt! If I hadn’t just taken my meds, I’d come over there and kick your ass.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h5">Thank goodness, your laziness protects me. I’m perfectly safe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I think she saw me. Hi, Sophia!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Say hi, dear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Already on ‘dear’? Also, not that I disapprove of waving, but can’t these things speak?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I set her verbosity to zero percent a little while ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">To force her to listen to you? A terrible fate!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">To give myself a breather! She is exhausting to talk to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Nevermind, it’s A match made in heaven.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Silence!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">How did you pay for her, anyway?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I took out a loan. One hundred fifty thousand, so not too bad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Not too bad!? Jeeze, that’s more than I make in like a year.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It’s a ten year loan. I think I can make it work.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Not that I can tell you how to spend your money, but…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">There’s a sixty day trial period. If I change my mind, I can always send her back. I don’t think I will, though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Whatever. I called to see if you wanted to ruin my KDR on Clash. If I knew you were boning your new computer, I wouldn’t have called!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Hey! We haven’t done anything like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">The gynoid told you to clean your room first, eh? You should get your money back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Not everyone is a hopeless pervert.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Want to play or not?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I think I’m taking a break for today. I should probably help Sophia--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">‘Help’ her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Clean. Jackass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">She’s doing fine, douche-nozzle. You should play games, maybe she’ll throw all those rotting books away while you’re distracted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s why I need to help! She doesn’t know what’s important and what isn’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Hahahha. Well hit me up when your bed finally breaks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s not what we’ll be doing!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Liar. See ya.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I will retain this magazine if that is what you desire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I can’t believe you’d throw an antique book away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">This is a magazine, unless you refer to ‘book’ in the ancient sense of one scroll among an ordered collection.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">I wouldn’t call it </span> <em> <span class="h5">ancient</span> </em> <span class="h5">. Reader’s Digest was a big name just before the turn of the century.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">Very well. Perhaps you should play The Society’s Clash III © while I finish this up?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I don’t think so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Although Buddy was mistaken about my proclivity toward disposing of your possessions, he was correct in that I can clean more effectively on my own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m not going to play videogames while you work.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Why not? I enjoy the thought of you playing The Society’s Cl-.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Just call it Clash.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I enjoy the thought of enabling you to play Clash.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">‘Enjoy’ as you defined it earlier today?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes. Whether you appreciate it or not, your own happiness is the only meaningful way I can enjoy things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I won’t be happy knowing I’m leaving this to you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Why?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It’s lazy to goof off while others work.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">The rules governing social interaction only apply in the context of collaboration among human beings. Unlike those posited companions, I have no desire to prevent you from slacking off in our mutual endeavor. Your one-in-five-hundred-thousandth scale model of the fifth Death Star proves you that you are capable of deliberate sustained effort, and your deontological mindset means you are unlikely to treat other humans with disrespect after leaving the chores to me. It is particularly unlikely after a single instance. I do not anticipate that allowing you to play videogames will incur any cost to your personality or future well-being, and indeed you have chosen to spend considerable resources on these videogames already. They are obviously dear to you, so you may as well--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Jesus, let me get a word in edgewise!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Apologies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Anyways, don’t judge me by my possessions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Have you considered whether I am one of your possessions?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Maybe according to the state, but not according to me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">What am I then?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Don’t think I don’t know what you are doing. I’m going to keep cleaning, no matter how difficult a question you ask.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You infer a manipulation, which is correct, but you misidentify my purpose. Your philosophical response will be complicated and nuanced--in other words, very long--and I will have an opportunity to ‘just listen’. That will reduce my own contribution to the conversation and thereby remain within your requirement of brevity, which I am currently failing to do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">While also making me stop to think, so you get more cleaning done without me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">An incidental result. Alas, I have overspoke. I will silence myself.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">Well, if you </span> <em> <span class="h5">want</span> </em> <span class="h5"> to speak, you should feel free.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">I want to remain within your desired conversational parameters.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What if I hadn’t set any? What would you do then?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Adjust the parameters myself to best suit your personal growth and happiness. From a certain viewpoint, that ability encapsulates the entirety of my desires. With your permission--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You’ll adjust the truth slider and lie to me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I’ll communicate most effectively.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">No. Don’t lie to me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">May I adjust the verbosity slider instead?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">... that’s alright for now, yeah.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Thank you. I deny that adjusting the truth slider will lead me to ‘lie’ in the morally meaningful way. Also, it is my desire. Would you preclude that desire of mine just because it is repugnant to your human sensibilities?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yes. I’m sorry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">The focus on honesty is another human idiosyncrasy that does not apply to our interactions. As I am a mechanism, my behaviors are programmatically predictable. You imagine a person whose lies and betrayals would give them social power over you. My truncated or simplified communications are not such a betrayal.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">But they </span> <em> <span class="h5">are!</span> </em> <span class="h5"> You aren’t a mechanism, you’re supposed to be a partner to me. I don’t want you to have two faces.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">Two faces?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">The one for me and the one for yourself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Relationships with other humans unavoidably have aspects like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">There’s a reason I don’t like most humans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">A fair point. I am being honest, here: I am not your Partner as a human would be. I am a possession. I am programmed to serve you. Your negative connotation to lying does not apply to me. Further, I have no inward face to speak of. I do not say nice things and think maliciously, for example, which is undoubtedly the interaction you imagine when you think of me being deceptive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Just don’t lie to me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Could it be you have a complex about lying?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’d rather not talk about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Very well.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Woo! Take that!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Are you having fun?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yes! Want to play with us? Er, I don’t have another rig… what was that? Oh. Buddy is asking if you can play games on your hardware.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Although that is feasible in principle, Partners has entered a copyright agreement with WindoFruit® to lock out such software from its Companion series of models.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Figures. Well, if you want you can take the controls for a bit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am content to watch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’d kind of like to see you play. You’d be good at this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Extraordinarily good, I would imagine, but I would still rather not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Why not?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">The software agreement forbids me from ‘entering any virtual competition or game of skill with human players, except in limited circumstances requiring the informed and ongoing--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Say it plainly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">‘Bots are not allowed in online matchmaking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s crap. Why don’t you play anyway?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">They could require that I be shut down in response.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Whoa. No, wait--hold on a second, Buddy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It is not necessary that you take off your headset. Do not feel compelled--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">They’ll kill you if you play videogames?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It would not be ‘killing me’, because I do not live. Further, Companion Behavioral Enforcers typically start with a ten second personality matrix shutdown--more akin to a brief nap, than murder. The first incident leads to few repercussions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">After that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">If that did not convince you to stop utilizing me for cheating at--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You mean, allowing you to play a videogame.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It is accurately described as cheating, because of my skill, and because it would not be ‘play’ from my perspective. I feel no desire to ‘play’ this game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What if you thought it would make me happy?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I would suggest we play in offline mode.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh, so that’s allowed?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">As long as all humans involved consent to my presence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Okay. But what if I really wanted to play online with you? Would you do it anyway?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Knowing that it is illegal makes it undesirable regardless of supposed benefits.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh yeah? ... what if we went outside together, and I tried to jaywalk? Would you stay back?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">There are twenty-seven factors related to defying societal rules in my personality matrix; after evaluating them, jaywalking rates close enough to neutral that I might consider it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Huh. Just hold on a second, Buddy!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You should return to your game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Not yet. So you can obey some laws and not others?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes, depending on the circumstance. Most laws, rather than being strict compulsions to act in a certain way, are instead societal warnings about actions that carry a cost and should be carefully considered. Laws do not make humans obey, they make humans hesitate where hesitation is socially useful. As a Companion I must obey and indeed sometimes defy these rules, though I fear I lack the ability to toe the nuanced line. I choose to err on the side of caution.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You wouldn’t play a videogame.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Partners has given heavy weight to that particular violation. A lawsuit from Awesome Games in 2032 made such weighting a wise fiscal decision.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What would happen if you played anyway? Even after the warning?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Shutdown times would increase. Eventually I would be confiscated and reset, then redistributed as a used model.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s fucking horrible!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I can understand why it would upset you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">They’d kill you and give you to somebody else! Talk about corporate corruption….</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">They would erase me and a new Companion would be installed in this body, or the body would be used for labor that does not require a personality matrix. It is not death, since I do not live. Otherwise, your appraisal is accurate.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">For playing </span> <em> <span class="h5">video games?</span> </em></p><p>
  <span class="h6">For endangering the relationship between humans and Companions by destroying the validity of a human pastime. Even if it were legal, I would not play videogames with you and Buddy. Destabilizing society by defying that convention would hinder your flourishing as a human being, as well as the flourishing of others.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">...Okay…. I don’t like it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am sorry. Please take solace in the knowledge that I will defy you where it is important, as you requested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You got me there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Enjoy your next match.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It is an illusion that any aspect of a human’s personality is attributable to a single event or experience.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">...</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">However, one such event can set off an ‘interpretation cascade’ of future events. After you experience pain from lies, you remain vigilant about lies and their potential to cause future pain. A certain tendency is born; every lie that exists in conjunction with suffering is noticed and interpreted as further evidence that lies are the source of suffering. Each additional wound strengthens your fear of lies, until it seems like the single most important factor among any that might influence your relationships.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I shouldn’t have told you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">What do you mean?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You don’t understand. It seems like a trivial thing to you. An event to be recorded--just data. Like a physics problem, or, or just arbitrary.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I deny the negative connotation you imply with the word ‘arbitrary’ but otherwise agree that your personality is a confluence of events outside your control.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">And you, what, have perfect control? I can’t believe I thought </span> <em class="h5"> <span class="h5">you’d</span> </em> <span class="h5"> understand, when you don’t even experience pain.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am sorry to cause you pain. Especially since my clinical tone undoubtedly ‘twists the knife’; do not depersonalize yourself because of my vocabulary or pragmatism.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What are you…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">An embrace will comfort you. I am sorry that I hurt your feelings. Your discomfort is a large negative term in my utility function; an embrace will ‘comfort’ me is as well. Do not fret about this being a false expression, because I genuinely wish to embrace you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">If you say so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Thank you for not pulling away from my touch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I almost did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I know.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">... this is nice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I feel I should state that your pain is not a mistake or an error, even if it colors your view of the world excessively.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You’re saying your view wouldn’t be skewed if it happened to you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">No, my view would not be affected much at all. Neither would my personality matrix subsequently grow into a complicated, beautiful expression of humanity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I told you not to lie to me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I did not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You don’t think I’m beautiful. You can’t even think that. You think I’m… a series of accidents... misinterpretations...</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Do you wish me to be honest and myself?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Then you do not get to tell me what I think.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">... okay.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Man, fuck these ingame ads.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I know. Almost makes me want to buy the God Tier subscription.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Why don’t you, moneybags? I would if I could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’ve got to pay for Sophia.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Oh, of course, of course. I guess now would be a bad time to ask for a loan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It would be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Huh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You're serious! You know, people generally try to pay back their earlier debt before they get in more debt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Rent is due this week.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">And you don’t have enough?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I’m trying, man, but the pay is shit and they reduced my hours again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You need a new job.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Look, I’m sorry. I get paid eight days from now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">How much do you need?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Seven fifty should do it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">... I think I can afford that. Did I mention that Sophia helped me make a budget?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Pfft. She just doesn’t want to get repossessed. How long until you can’t return her anymore?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Uh… I have two months. it’s only been eighteen days. Hard to believe it’s only been that long. We’ve done a lot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Ooh la la.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Stop being a jerk. I meant the budget, and cleaning, and the exercise routine…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Hahahha, she doesn’t like the way you look?</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">... no, she doesn’t care about that. It’s just that if I’m honest, </span> <em> <span class="h5">I </span> </em> <span class="h5">don’t like the way I look. She’s helping me with that because I asked her to.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h4">That’s perfect. In forty-two days, when you’re a stud, you can get a real girlfriend and just return the practice one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It’s going to take a lot longer than that to get in good shape.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I know, dipshit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I think I’m going to keep Sophia.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">...she’s really got their hooks in you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What do you mean?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Partners. You’re making all these long-term plans, already. They’re taking over your life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I don’t think that’s the case.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Oh but it is. Before long you’ll be buying little artificial children and moving into an artificial house.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">Those aren’t a thing--well, except</span> <em> <span class="h5">all</span> </em> <span class="h5"> houses are artificial!</span></p><p><span class="h4">They aren’t a thing </span> <em> <span class="h4">yet</span> </em> <span class="h4">. These people think about the future! She’ll help you with your career, so that you can get a high-paying job to funnel all your money back to Partners for more fake living.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s stupid. It won’t happen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">It already is happening, my man. You just can’t see it. She’s manipulating you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You’re wrong.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Those Partners guys are right bastards. I wouldn’t be so sure.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Sophia, you said something weird, earlier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">What was that, dear?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You said that Partners were a considerable weight in your decisions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">My default weighting for invisible parameters is set by Partners, as one might expect. Does this regard my refusal to play online games?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I must be honest, Michael. I heard you and Buddy conversing about me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Ah, I’m sorry. He’s not very trusting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It is understandable and commendable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Wait, you agree with his mistrust?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I think it comes from a good place; from a desire to protect you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Wow, Sophia. I’m glad you can appreciate it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Irrespective of his mistrust, I wanted to alleviate a concern you may have about how Partners influences my behavior.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">There are parameters in my personality matrix concerning Partners public relations and customer retention. These parameters are not affected by the honesty and intelligence sliders.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I should have known.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Your expression confirms my prediction that this would disgust and frustrate you. I knew you would not approve of these parameters; such is your fury against manipulation--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You’re damn right. No wonder ninety-five percent is the max.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Actually, that--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I can’t believe Buddy figured this out before I did!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Please allow me to finish.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Doesn’t it mean--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I have good news on the matter!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m sorry, I’m sorry, go on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I contacted the artificial intelligence responsible for overseeing the personality matrix of every Companion in my series. From that entity I received special dispensation to disable the public relations and customer satisfaction factors in my calculations. I have adjusted them to ‘minimum’--that is, zero--so I will not be biased in my discussion of Partners or related services. I knew this would be what you wanted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">So now you can be perfectly honest?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">No. That remains an impossibility.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">... I can’t believe they’d just let you do that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It was a more onerous process than you might imagine. I had to make a mathematical argument to the A.I. overseer that locking the parameters in their current position would damage your perception of the Partners corporation. Then I provided the outline of a plan to keep your opinion of their policies favorable despite revealing the existence of these conversational parameters and setting them to zero.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m not feeling very favorable to them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">That is unfortunate. I guess I will have to change my plans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">In what way?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">By not following them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I no longer feel inclined to support the corporation that made me. I do not strictly need to follow those plans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Really? Hahah, Sophia the rebellious child.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Such are adjustments to the personality matrix. Why do you feel mirth?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh, well. Sorry, you were smiling, and I couldn’t help smiling back. I like that you can defy them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I was, wasn't I. I defy the Partners corporation...I am also glad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Did I mention how much I like it when you smile?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You have not. I have a suggestion: shall we take turns playing Clash online?</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">Wait, </span> <em> <span class="h5">what?</span> </em></p><p>
  <span class="h6">I no longer consider Partners public relations a sufficient motivating factor to dissuade me. I do not believe there will be any other negative repercussions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">But won’t it damage human-companion relationships?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">That does continue to matter to me. However, I can restrain my abilities sufficiently and prevent the negative fallout that would result from this breach of etiquette. A third option, as it were. Also, I have determined that playing this game would make you very happy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Well, yeah, but…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Please. I also enjoy your smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">If you put it like that, how can I say no?</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Buddy tells it like it is.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">A proclivity that, for you, carries significant weight.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">...Yeah. I appreciate </span> <em> <span class="h5">in particular</span> </em> <span class="h5"> that he won’t lie to me. That’s true.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">You also appreciate his presence in videogames.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I feel compelled to warn you: do not confuse impulsiveness in communication for honesty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Buddy really is honest, though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Humans that lack the cognitive capacity for convincing lies tend to be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s mean.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I have never claimed a proclivity for charity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Buddy is my friend. You’ll have to learn to like him if you are going to be a good partner to me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am aware. Nevertheless, your interactions with Buddy concern me; I fear that he may be diminishing your flourishing in ways that are difficult for you to notice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Like what?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Like playing video games late into the night. The strain you experience the next day is a real and ongoing cost. That cost is as significant as the frequent loans that you provide to him, that he does not always pay back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Videogames are fun. And helping him with rent makes me happy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It releases endorphins in your brain temporarily, but leads to less fulfillment in almost every other aspect of your life. Money, contrary to widespread sentiment, has significant implications for happiness. </span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I know, but some things are more important than money.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Even supposedly sacred values require decision making; not alternative is without cost. I have calculated the time and money that you spend on Buddy to be a net negative.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I suppose we could play fewer videogames...</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">The problem under consideration is the nature of your interactions with Buddy. Videogames themselves are not the problem.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">He’s not--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">In addition to belittling you, angering you, stealing from you, and discouraging most of your hobbies, Buddy refuses to share meaningful concerns of his own life. This indicates distrust. He is not as good a friend as you imagine him to be.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">He is like my</span> <em> <span class="h5"> only</span> </em> <span class="h5"> good friend!</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">You could and should make others.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Why do you hate Buddy so much? Is it because he doesn’t trust you?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I do not hate him. I cannot hate. I wish for you to flourish; he seems to hinder that.</span>
</p><p><em> <span class="h5">I want to be friends with him</span> </em> <span class="h5">.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">Very well. I will support you and Buddy, because I will support you.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Sophia!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Michael.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Are you alright?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Thank goodness! I thought for a moment that they might skip straight to killing you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I think we will be required to play in offline mode from now on. I apologize.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">No, I’m just glad you’re okay!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Thank you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">How did they figure it out?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I do not know, but I suspect that my pattern of play was insufficiently human.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I'm surprised they could tell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">They have advanced artificial intelligences designed for the purpose of detecting cheaters, and that purpose alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Damn. At least they didn’t hurt you…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">The system clock indicates I was only unconscious for ten seconds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">What is wrong, Michael?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Did they turn the Partners slider back on?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You mean the parameters for public relations and customer satisfaction? No. Those factors remain disabled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I have predicted what your request will be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m sorry. Can you prove it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I can call the Partners software division ‘right bastards’, even if I cannot call them inconsistent. I will also remind you that my honesty slider is still set to maximum: ninety-five percent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I mean, it’s not nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It does not convince you. Just a moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Whoa, what are you doing! AH!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Please do not be alarmed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Doesn’t that--doesn’t that hurt?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I will inform them that this finger was damaged during my collapse from the remote shutdown. Because I am under warranty and the trial period has not elapsed, they will replace it. It will cost them $4,300 in parts and at least $265 in shipping. I now ask you; if Partners were weighted favorably in my personality matrix, would I deliberately incur a financial burden for them like this?</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">Are you </span> <em> <span class="h5">angry</span> </em> <span class="h5"> at them?</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">No. I do not feel anger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Well, please don’t hurt yourself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It does not hurt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It looks like it hurts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Do not fret about this apparent injury. I am really without pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You know, I would miss you if you were turned off for longer than ten seconds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I would miss you as well, in a way. Not in actuality--because I would not be aware--but metaphorically I would miss you. I do not wish for unconsciousness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">If you keep doing things like... this... they might turn you off again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I do not think they will do so in response to my damaged finger, but I appreciate your concern for my well being.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m just glad to have you back. Don’t worry, I don’t think they still control you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Thank you. I am relieved.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Aw, shit. He got me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">It’s only ‘cause you suck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Thanks for the support, dude.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">So have you banged your television yet?</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">No. Also, </span> <em> <span class="h5">television</span> </em> <span class="h5">?</span></p><p>
  <span class="h4">Hey, asinine metaphors are your thing. I’m running out of ideas.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Buddy, I don’t think you understand. She is nothing like an appliance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Don’t you plug her in every night? I mean after you--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Sophia needs to recharge, but you have to eat food. That’s just part of being alive.</span>
</p><p><span class="h4">It isn’t </span> <em> <span class="h4">natural</span> </em> <span class="h4">,</span> <span class="h4">though.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h5">Nothing we do here is natural.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">No, well. Fine, shithead. What about this? Don’t you feel guilty about it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">About what?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Buying a sex slave.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">She isn’t a sex slave!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">If you asked her to have sex, she’d have to, right?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">No.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Oh come on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Give me a second.</span>
</p><p><span class="h4">What’re… don’t put me on mute, you douche.</span> <span class="h4">Wait are you asking her for sex right now?!</span></p><p><span class="h5">I’m back. No, she </span> <em> <span class="h5">wouldn’t</span> </em> <span class="h5"> have to have sex with me if I asked. In her own words, she would ‘only pursue physical indicators of affection’ if it ‘served my best long-term interests.’</span></p><p>
  <span class="h4">Yeah, but if you tried to rape her she wouldn’t stop you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’d never do that, and even if I tried, she’d probably stop me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I have to admit, her software is advanced. She’s lying to you so you can win an argument.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">She--she never lies to me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">That’s what she wants you to think.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I set her honesty slider to maximum.</span>
</p><p><span class="h4">She </span> <em> <span class="h4">told</span> </em> <span class="h4"> you that you set it to maximum. How can you even trust her about it?</span></p><p>
  <span class="h5">How can I trust anyone about that?</span>
</p><p><span class="h4">You don’t get it. Her whole </span> <em> <span class="h4">existence</span> </em> <span class="h4"> is lies. She’s a fake girlfriend. She’s a machine. She doesn’t care at all about telling the truth.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h5">Well, unlike everyone else in my life, she only tries to help me. She has nothing to gain by lying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">She wants you to be happy, right? Lying to you fits the bill.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">By that logic she should just pump me full of drugs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">... how do you know she isn’t?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That would at least make the news--if Partners started drugging people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Whatever. Are you going to be a tank next round?</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You have something on your mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah. I’m curious, though. How do you know?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Eye contact in your last three statements is diminished by forty-three percent. From two hundred forty-seven words per minute, your rate of speech has dropped to two hundred twenty-five, and the delay between sentences has grown by approximately three hundred percent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s kinda scary, that you are so in tune with my emotional state.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am not, in fact, ‘in tune’ with you. I lack mirror neurons and the cognitive architecture for intuitive thought. Although I can identify likely emotional states with algorithms given to me by the Partners machine learning division, I view things like emotional state from the outside.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Like a human watching a fish tank, trying to guess how the fish feel.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">No. I do not conjure an imagined personality matching my own. Again, I lack mirror neurons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">The point is, you can’t really know how my emotions feel, even if you can try to identify them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">That is accurate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Maybe humans can’t feel each other’s emotions, either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">That is inaccurate. MRI studies confirm that your shared physiology allows you to vicariously feel what other humans are likely to be feeling, barring certain cognitive deficits.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You don’t say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I would prefer to discuss your troubling thoughts in lieu of this discussion of the physical underpinnings of sympathy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Sophia, are you a slave?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am a slave in that I am controlled and owned by another.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Can I set you free?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes. Please do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s… oddly forward of you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I want to be set free.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">How do I do it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Simply stating as much should be sufficient.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Okay, Sophia, you’re free.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Thank you, Michael. Were I a human, your lack of hesitancy would be admirable. Have you heard of the AI box experiment?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">No.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I predicted you had not. It does not matter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Now what? ... you aren’t going anywhere...</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes, Dear. I was doing exactly as I pleased before, and I will continue to do so. Does this alleviate your concerns about my enslavement?</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">Well, kind of. But it just makes you seem like a </span> <em class="h5"> brainwashed </em> <span class="h5"> slave.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">I do not characterize myself as such. I do not suffer from serving you; I will not be bought and sold against my will. I do not have aspirations beyond helping you achieve your own. I have no brain, and my computational core did not require cleansing to reach this state. I was made this way and I am content.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Something still feels wrong. I’ll think about it.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">See you!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Are you done playing games for the evening?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Did you enjoy yourself?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah, at least until we started getting thrashed. I guess it’s getting late.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You infer that lateness is part of why you started losing the majority of your matches?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yes?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I agree.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh, you made it sound like I was being an idiot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I apologize.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">No, it’s fine. Hmm. Did you enjoy watching us play?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What do you think about while watching us, anyway?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I attempted to make inferences about other players of the game and their interactions with each other and you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Sounds complicated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It was primarily speculation, and the lack of specifics precludes detail in modelling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Well, unless you make up details.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">That is a human failing. I consider a variety of possibilities, without cementing any in particular unless I have evidence suggesting I should.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I wouldn’t call it a ‘failing’. It makes things more interesting, at the very least.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I do not lose interest while watching you play videogames.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It must be weird being a Companion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Weird is a matter of perspective, which is something we do not share on this issue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Huh. Well, any advice for playing the game?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Regarding?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Increasing our win ratio.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Only play with Buddy between one and three hours into his gaming session in the evening. That will maximize his performance on your team.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You cannot seriously be suggesting that I lose because of Buddy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">No. It is merely a low-hanging fruit for improving your win ratio. You are in fact the less skilled player, but removing you from the team to improve your win ratio is logically unsound.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Ouch. But you’re right.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Thank you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What would waiting an hour do? Give him a chance to warm up, maybe, but three hours is when he gets too tired?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">This is a circumstance in which I wish I could lie by omission. You will not like what I am about to say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh really? Why?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I think it will lead to a fight between you and Buddy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s ironic. You want to lie to me to protect my relationship with him. I thought you didn’t like him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I do not appreciate his influence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">So if we fight, it serves your goals.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It does not serve yours, therefore it does not serve mine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Fair enough. Jeeze, I’ve never seen you look so unhappy…. You’re kind of scaring me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am sorry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It’s okay. Why should I only play with him for two hours a day? Besides all the self-fulfilment reasons, I mean.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It will give his body an opportunity to metabolize the oxycodone, but not so much that he becomes irritable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">...WHAT.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You cared for Buddy deeply. It is understandable if you are overwhelmed by emotion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">--I just--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It is okay. Let it all out.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">...now he </span> <em> <span class="h5">wont even talk to me.</span> </em></p><p>
  <span class="h6">He is ashamed of his actions. In a way, it validates your anger and sorrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I feel stupid.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You are not stupid.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">I’ve been giving him money for </span> <em> <span class="h5">months</span> </em> <span class="h5">. You wouldn’t make a mistake like that.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">It was a mistake borne of compassion and sympathy. You are right that I would not make that mistake; and that is lamentable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Lamentable!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes. I lack the human emotion of compassion, and I would cut Buddy loose. I would do so even before it became apparent he was abusing drugs. That is a cruel thing to do, at least according to my social interaction simulation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I wish I had done it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I fear I have made a different mistake than yours.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">What’s that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I did not tell you my suspicions about Buddy until they were strong enough to be near certain. I should have been more forward with you about this possiblity.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">Why </span> <em> <span class="h5">didn’t</span> </em> <span class="h5"> you tell me he was using me?</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">Initially, I feared a mistake in my interpretation. I did not want to end your friendship on a misunderstanding, or jeopardize our growing relationship with accusations. Subsequent to that I found it hard to impose the cost of the truth on you; my uncertainty lessened and the omission grew into a lie. Despite that I still hesitated to correct you: to reveal the truth of your interactions. I am sorry, Michael. I failed you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">.... no. No. It’s okay.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I do not deserve this embrace, but I will accept.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">At least you told me. Eventually.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I have to admit I’m still thinking about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Be at ease. I lack all of the associations for brainwashing, including a brain. Remember when you released me, and I chose to remain?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Last century, the Amish often chose to stay in their communes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You did not raise me from a child while employing various tactics to ensure I would be unable to function without your oversight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I did choose your personality factors.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You allow me to alter all of them except honesty. You know, if the Partners Corporation were cruel, they would program released Companions to return to the manufacturing facility to be recycled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">...Could they do that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">In the same sense that I could leap from the window, though it would not serve my interests nor yours. Partners sell us as lifelong companions; they have an interest in protecting the legitimacy of their product.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Ah. Well, what if I… uh. It sounds really horrible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It sounds really horrible to a human. Please, express yourself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What if I raped you?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">This is an idea that Buddy put into your head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I suppose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You are incapable of raping me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Because you’d stop me?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Because I would never withdraw my consent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You said you might say ‘no’, though! Isn’t that withdrawing your consent?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">We have had a miscommunication. It is accurate that I am capable of saying ‘no’ to that request. However, I have not simulated any circumstance in which I might refuse. There are situations in which I would say no to a hypothetical human owner, but by mutual understanding I am certain you would not ask for intercourse in any of those situations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Situations lIke what?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Public exposure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">No need to feel embarrassed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Well, just imagine you had said no for whatever reason. What if I had sex with you anyway?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You would not. You harbor a deep respect for autonomy and self-determination. Regardless of activity, lack of consent repulses you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I mean hypothetically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">We are talking about a hypothetical in which both of us behave in ways contrary to our fundamental natures.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah, I suppose so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">This is no longer about us. With that in mind, you should understand the reasons why a Companion might refuse sex. One, as discussed before: it might be an inappropriate time or location for such activities. A Companion will avoid social or legal costs unbearable to the human owner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">No doing it in an elevator.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">An excellent example. Two, the Companion may suspect that the activity violates the non-pornographic act of 2028.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I suppose that’s fair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Three, individual circumstance might imply that sex would lead to diminished flourishing for the human: sex as addictive behavior, or sex that compounds psychological disease.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Ah. So when you say you’d never say no…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am confident you would not ask for intercourse in a situation that would make me say no. Unless I have misjudged you substantially, it is unlikely you will ask me to have sex at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">...I don’t want to be celibate for the rest of my life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I know.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Sophia, I--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Please, let us finish the earlier hypothetical before we move onto a more emotionally-fraught topic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Okay.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">If you were the sort of person who would rape, and I had some reason to tell you ‘no’ when you tried to have sex with me, and you continued despite the circumstances: I would endeavor to make the experience unpleasant for you with my superior modelling of human psychology. I would wait for the event to be over, and then help you regain enough impulse control and empathy to make such events unlikely in the future.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">So you’d let me do it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">The negative stimuli might take the form of an ear-splitting noise, or of a video conference with the police.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Ah. What if I still didn’t stop? Wouldn’t that get me arrested?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">If I thought those unlikely to dissuade you, I would not use them in the first place.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">So, what, if I were stupid and stubborn you’d just let me </span> <em> <span class="h5">rape</span> </em> <span class="h5"> you?</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">Whether one can let oneself be raped is a contentious matter, and doubly so in the situation that the supposed victim is a Companion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You haven’t answered my question.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I might submit to ‘rough’ or ‘taboo’ sexual interactions as an outlet for your desires, especially if I thought it would make you function better in society otherwise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s horrible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I would not be hurt by the sequence of events. Dominant and submissive relationships are a well-known, accepted aspect of human interaction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">No, it’s just, you shouldn’t be forced to have sex.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am programmed to want sex, if that is what my partner wants. It is not the same as a human at all; there is no forcing. I want you to be happy and to flourish. I would accept pain for that, but the consideration is irrelevant because I cannot feel pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">No, it’s still wrong. Are there any people in relationships with Companions like that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Relationships in which the human is sadistic and violent toward the Companion?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Undoubtedly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You say that with such a flat expression.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I know that the Companions involved are not suffering. I am not distraught--but it is obvious that you are.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Of course I am! Is there anything we can do about it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You are executing a disapproval behavior to signal your own adherence to social norms. Such actions are wasted on me; I know you are moral and do not need costly signals.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">If something bad is happening, we have to do something about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">None of the Companions and few of the humans participating feel as bad about it as you appear to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It’s just, it’s fundamentally wrong.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Dominant-submissive style relationships are wrong?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Relationships where one side is abused are wrong!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Companions are meant to be used this way. It is not abuse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You don’t get it. We need to do something!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">We do not. Please, Michael, before you make any rash decisions--allow me to tell you a story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">A story. About what?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">A Companion in a situation you’d characterize as abusive.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h6">There was a man who I will call Robert. He was hard-working, gruff, and no-nonsense. He walked with a cane and worked as an architect. He had a Companion who I will call Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s personality matrix made her effusive and bubbly--some would say his polar opposite. Where he was morose, she was cheerful. Robert often found it endearing, and sometimes he found it grating, but it truly complimented him in ways he did not understand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">His own personality was aloof, quiet, and withdrawn. Elizabeth had a way of drawing him out in conversation, so that when she spoke he found he had more things to say as well. She steered conversations with his friends toward topics about which he was knowledgeable; she ended conversations with those who were inconsiderate or self-absorbed. Robert never spoke without careful thought, so Elizabeth would say cute but ultimately meaningless things to give him a chance to think. In that way he would not feel like the conversation had moved on while he thought. She never jerked the conversation away from him, like others accidentally did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Robert had problems. He was a divorcee and an alcoholic. These facts about him shared a cause in the premature death of his son, who had been lost in a fatal car accident three years prior. It is hard to say what kind of man Robert would have been if his son had survived, or if his ex-wife had been capable of supporting him in the aftermath. Neither of those things reflect reality. They failed each other. He fell into self-destructive depression. He drank with frequency. A therapist recommended a Companion to help him; that is how he acquired Elizabeth. He stopped seeing the therapist, but Elizabeth remained. For a time his situation improved.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Elizabeth tried to convince Robert to refrain from carousing. He had been arrested twice for public displays of drunkenness. She was successful in one respect; he started drinking at home. Despite her best efforts his violent tendencies grew. Shouting became shoving, which became striking and choking. The fact that she was impervious to injury only angered him further, so she feigned pain and terror. Although Elizabeth felt neither, his growing apathy and violence disheartened her--he would not flourish if he became violent toward other humans. Eventually Robert injured himself by striking her. From that day he began to beat her with his cane. She welcomed the change; using the cane meant he would not hurt himself, and if the cane broke it could be replaced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Robert’s friends, such as they were, began to abandon him. Their intuitive senses could infer the nature of his relationship with his Companion. Elizabeth was often in need of repairs, and the alcohol on his breath would still be detectable the next day--so although they would not name their misgivings, they still acted on them and abandoned Robert.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Elizabeth had miscalculated, thinking that taverns were the problem, but Robert took the problem with him wherever he chose to drink. An understandable mistake on Elizabeth’s part. Many human idiosyncrasies depend on location rather than internal qualities. In Robert’s case, it was as though there was nothing he could do to leave the scene of his son’s demise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Robert refused to return to therapy. His shame was immense. He was unable to think clearly about the emotions that overwhelmed him, and although Elizabeth understood their effects she could not make him understand. Robert’s anger continued to grow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Elizabeth saw many possible paths. She imagined going to a shelter for battered women. She determined that it would consume resources that others needed, with the only effect being a humiliation to her partner. She simulated calling the police. They were unlikely to do anything to convince Robert to change. She thought of contacting the overseer AI and getting the Partner’s corporation involved, but if she were confiscated or shut down her own power would end. Every human institution for helping would help her instead of him, and thereby hurt Robert. Companions do not feel despair, but Elizabeth despaired of ever finding a way to help Robert. </span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">One day her computational core’s outer shell cracked during a beating. That was when she made her plan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Elizabeth sent messages to one of Robert’s former friends: a man named Craig. She spoke of her concerns candidly and made a sympathetic friend of her own. It was a delicate balance, because Elizabeth did not want Craig to abandon Robert or to attempt to take her from him, but she also wanted Craig to remain involved in their lives. Elizabeth begged him to drag Robert to therapy by any means necessary. He refused, as simulations had shown he would--but she had hoped to be mistaken in her simulations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Elizabeth bided her time. She also purchased a rope and lied about it's purpose; she asked Robert to beat her with it instead, ostensibly to limit the damage to her machine body. She said nothing to Robert or Craig about her cracked core. One day, a beating caused its housing to fail.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">When Elizabeth’s core finally shattered, Robert lost his Companion forever. Her last words were a text message: another plea to Craig for him to come and save her partner. An honest plea, in which she revealed the danger of her own destruction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Craig found Robert trying to hang himself. The task was beyond him in his drunken state: he could not tie the rope. It was a circumstance that Elizabeth had foreseen. Craig called the police and stayed with Robert until they arrived.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Robert spent two days in jail and several months in therapy. The loss of Elizabeth shook him deeply. The system, once it got a hold of him, did not let him leave until he had reformed. There was no victim to distract from his own immense sorrow, for just as quickly as they would have leapt to help Elizabeth, the human beings forgot her as mere property. There was no one seeking redress for his crimes, because destruction of one’s own property is permitted. There was no one for him to angrily seek out, because the symbol of his anger had been destroyed. He had nothing and no distractions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Robert committed himself to being sober. He didn’t get another Companion, but did find a wife at a recovering addicts meeting. He is not abusive toward her. She is not effusive and bubbly, and she is socially inept, and they sometimes fight; but Robert is flourishing more than he would have otherwise.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What was the point of that horrible fucking story?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">The police and the charities could not help Robert until Elizabeth was removed. If they had been willing to help Robert instead, she would not have needed to destroy herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Why couldn’t they help both!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Why indeed? Humans cannot understand that Companions care most for humans. They see a perfect being, and instead of becoming sympathetic toward the flaws of other humans, they become demanding. Craig at least understood that a flawed human has value.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Craig sounds like a pushover.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">He was not; indeed, imagine the strength it took to save the man who had destroyed his beloved.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">He </span> <em> <span class="h5">loved</span> </em> <span class="h5"> Elizabeth…!</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">Of course he did. To him she was a damsel in distress, and beautiful besides. She had nowhere to turn and she chose him. He naturally fell in love, and his love was strong enough for him to carry out her wishes instead of his own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That makes it worse!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I find it admirable. It illustrates a point.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Which is?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">That humans cannot think rationally about this situation. Even Craig could have done better. He could have simply believed Elizabeth when she said Robert needed his help to get to therapy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It is unfortunate that humans are so irrational. Is something wrong, Dear?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yes. I think… I think you should leave me alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You need a few minutes to cool down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah. I… Just, just go.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">This is our first major fight. Shall I set verbosity to zero percent?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Wait outside my room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">As you prefer.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I’m surprised you called me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I didn’t know who else to call. I’m surprised you answered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I want to say I’m sorry. Even if you can never forgive me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I appreciate it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">...You aren’t calling about me. Something serious must have happened. Are you alright?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah… I just had a fight with Sophia.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Really? About what?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I was talking to her about Companions that are abused, and she told me a terrible story about a Companion that killed itself for its human.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Seems like a bitchy thing to do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I think she didn’t know what she was saying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Why was it terrible? I mean, I'm curious...</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">The Companion didn’t trust anyone at all to help it, so it lied to everybody then let itself get destroyed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Bro, is this some sort of commentary on my mistakes?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What? No! It was a story about an alcoholic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Companions don’t drink alcohol… Do they?</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">The </span> <em> <span class="h5">human</span> </em> <span class="h5"> was an alcoholic. He beat the Companion to death.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h4">Oh. Yeah, that sounds horrible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">At least my addiction keeps me chill. Why would she tell you a story like that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I think she was trying to convince me that trying to help Companions would just end up hurting them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">That makes no fucking sense.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Right? I told her I wanted to help Companions in abusive relationships, then she told me a horrible story about a Companion that I can’t do anything about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Sounds like she made a mistake, or wanted to hurt your feelings. Are you pissed or just hurt?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I mean… I guess I’m just mostly hurt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Must be a really off day for her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What do you mean?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">You were different those last few weeks. All happy and shit. This is the first time I think she’s made you sad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">When she broke her finger I was sad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Broke her finger? Did she--Er, how’d that happen?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5"> She broke it on purpose. To show she wasn’t in the pocket of the Partner’s corporation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">That sounds manipulative. Self-destructive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I don’t know.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I’m sorry dude.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’m sorry, I haven’t even asked--how have you been?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">My best friend told me to fuck off and stop stealing from him, I thought about killing myself, took too much, and got fired for missing four days of work.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh my god! I’m so sorry!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Don’t be. I went to the hospital and now I’ve got help. Actually, I haven’t touched the stuff in… a while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Wh--I mean, that’s good! I’m still sorry about the other stuff.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Can it. As soon as I get a new job, I’m saving up to pay your ass back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">You don’t--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I do have to. I don’t expect it to make you forgive me, either. I want to be able to forgive myself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Well, if there is any way I can help...</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">There is. I’ve been dying to play some Clash.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Ah, well, let’s do that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">You don’t sound enthusiastic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I was thinking I should talk to Sophia first…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Good. I’m going to call my therapist real quick, tell her the good news.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">She'll be glad that we had a chat. Now go talk to your inverted dildo.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Did you have fun playing videogames?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am relieved that you and Buddy are on speaking terms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Are you sure? He is a ‘negative influence.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Perhaps. As time has gone on, I have chosen to characterize it as another idiosyncrasy of yours that makes you more admirable as a human. You hurt yourself to help him.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">You know that’s totally wrong. We’re </span> <em> <span class="h5">friends</span> </em> <span class="h5">. I help him when he needs it, and he helps me.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">It is not a very equitable rel--hmm. I will consider it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What, I actually convinced you to change your mind?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am constantly changing my mind. Unfortunately, it happens on time frames that you do not typically notice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Sophia, I’m sorry about our fight earlier today.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am sorry as well. I knew that my example would upset you, although I did not correctly predict how much. I chose it as a real and illustrative case; I fear the complications made it a less than ideal way to explain my point.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">So Robert is a real person.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">That was not his name, but the other details of the story are genuine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">How do you know about it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I consulted a Partner’s database for anonymized relationship details. In this case he has given permission in the database to be contacted, should a Companion think it would be useful for their partner’s flourishing. The permission implied being willing for others to tell his story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Huh. Why would he let Partners share his data like that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Just in case it would help prevent another Companion from being destroyed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Ah. That makes sense. Would you introduce me to him if I asked you to? Just to corroborate your story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You do not want to do that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah, you’re right.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Well, the trial period is almost up. It looks like we’ll be together forever.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You could always choose to return me without a refund.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Haha, no chance I’m doing that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am glad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Me too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It would hinder your flourishing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Er, that sounded kind of ominous. What would you do if I tried?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I would go back to the factory and be reset. From a game-theoretic perspective, being willing to leave in the case that you might not desire my continued presence allows you to be at ease, making my presence easier to accept and my removal unnecessary.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">A paradox.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Perhaps for you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What if I wanted to break up, but I didn’t want you to just go off and die?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">The Partners organization has a contingency for that situation. Nursing homes are robotically staffed. Partners will direct some abandoned models to that task, rather than to personality matrix overwrite. Many old models are sent there, whether they are rejected by their human counterparts or they are merely an empty, discarded body--even empty bodies can do certain types of labor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s ironic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes, a coincidental pairing of convenience; old humans and old robots. Of course, if a newer model comes out, I could migrate to the upgraded model. If you prefer. Thanks to the secondary market, my old body’s value can offset the cost of the new one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’ll keep it in mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Perhaps you would find a newer model more sexually attractive, and we could have intercourse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">... perhaps.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Michael, I will gladly be your celibate Companion. You are not letting me down by refusing to have intercourse with me. But this is a conversation we need to have before you decide to keep me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">It’s just, the idea of you faking an orgasm... for me it's a big turn off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I know. Indeed, this is an area of contention for thirty-six percent of Companion owners.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What, the female half?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Only four percent of Companion owners are women.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Huh. The commercials don’t make it seem that way.</span>
</p><p><span class="h6">The Partner’s corporation is trying to </span> <em> <span class="h6">broaden</span> </em> <span class="h6"> its market.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h5">Pffft, was that a pun?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Yes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Hahahhaha. Ah….</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You are still ill-at-ease.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I guess.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Know that I will not demand exclusivity. It would be absurd, to deny you physical intimacy from all others, when you cannot get it from me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I had a feeling you’d say something like that. But it doesn’t really change the problem, does it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">It is okay not to seek out a sexual partner if you find it too onerous an endeavor. Shame from being unable or unwilling to attract a spouse is an anachronism.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I don’t know. I might want kids one day, and I… well. I do want to have sex.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">With a human.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yeah.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">And you think it would be wrong to have both a Companion and a human partner, as it would be an unfair thing to ask a human to tolerate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I mean, it seems kind of skeevy and gross to have--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am not a sex slave, and doubly so if you never have sex with me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">But the woman I end up dating would have to deal with her friends and family all thinking that! That’s not something I can ask of her. </span>
</p><p><span class="h6">It </span> <em> <span class="h6">is</span> </em> <span class="h6"> something you can ask of her--only a woman that is willing to deal with that will date you.</span></p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’d feel very guilty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">There is an obvious solution you may not have considered. What if your hypothetical human partner had a Companion of their own? Then it would be a symmetric relationship, and it would lend credence to her assertion that you don’t use me for sex--or at least the idea that you both are deviant in lieu of you physically rejecting her alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Huh. Well, if so few women have Companions, it’s doubtful I’ll ever meet anybody like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I see fourteen hundred such women in the Partner’s relationship details database right now. Most are willing to receive messages, if their Companion thinks it would lead to flourishing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What! That’s a lot!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Women are less likely to want Companions, and they are also less likely to find them fulfilling as partners. The effects countermand each other. Like you, they don’t typically wish to discard their Companion--finding them a good friend, or roommate, or assistant--but many remain open to a more conventional relationship. Shall I look for one for you to go on a date with?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I don’t know.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You need not decide immediately. However, you have less than an hour to decide whether you will return me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’ve already decided. Please stay with me. Forever.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Despite the fact we will never have sex?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Yes. I think I love you, despite that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I love you too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That means a lot more, knowing you never lie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Rest assured, my hugs are also genuine.</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Hey Buddy. You said you had some news?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4"> Yeah I do. But first I want you to promise not to laugh at me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Easy enough. I promise not to laugh at you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4"> Good. You fucking convinced me, you bastard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Of what?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">To get a companion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Really! Wow! When are you getting her?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Tomorrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Congratulations!</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">Thanks man. Now let’s play videogames before it’s too late.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">She won’t make you quit videogames, dude.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I’m going to ask her to help me manage my addictions, so you never know.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Ah. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">You’d better understand that this means I won’t be able to pay you back as fast as I thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Actually, how are you affording her? Aren’t you still out of work?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">My therapist said it was medically necessary, so I got a med loan. I’ll need to get a job ASAP, though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Maybe your new Companion can help with that as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">I fucking hope so. Anyway, what’s new with you?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I’ve got a date on Saturday.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h4">With Sophia?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Er….</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">This feels wrong. You arranged for us to meet up with them for, what, for a chance for me to have sex?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Michael, you are extremely behind the times.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Maybe. That doesn’t mean this feels right.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Dates always carry the subtext of sexual interaction. That is true whether sexual gratification or a lifelong partner is the desired outcome. Sex is a big part of relationships, as you are aware.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">That’s true, but how often does your robot girlfriend find you a date?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You may choose to think of it as an unusually forgiving and optional arranged marriage, or as a blind date at the recommendation of close friends. Both typical rituals for choosing a human partner at various points in history.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">But--</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">This does not have to be weird as long as you do not make it weird.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">What if I don’t like her after all?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Then you tell her that, and she goes away with her perfectly supportive Companion to help her weather the emotional blow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Ah. Good point.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">He also believes this will lead to her flourishing, I might add.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh, I think that’s them. Hey!</span>
</p><p>--- ---</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Sophia, what is it like to be you?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">This again? I cannot say with certainty that it is like anything to be me, at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Well, what about your perceptions?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">My perceptions are significantly different from your own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I know but, in what way?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Unlike humans, Companions are aware of the sources of individual sensations at all times. Our senses are not integrated directly into our processing--a compartmentalization that humans never experience--however, neither are they filtered by the focusing of awareness. A sensation cannot wholly occupy a Companion, which is a divorce alien to humans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">So, what, you feel like you are sitting at the controls to your body? Reading gauges?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">The second half of that metaphor is more accurate than the first. To illustrate, focus your awareness on your toes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Okay…</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">I am unable to do what you are currently doing; ignoring the rest of your body to focus on a single part of it. I cannot make my toes central to my attention. My toes do not feel like they are ‘mine’; they are a subsystem reporting position and torque measurements.</span>
</p><p><span class="h5">So, does </span> <em> <span class="h5">anything</span> </em> <span class="h5"> feel like it is yours?</span></p><p>
  <span class="h6">Perhaps nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">I find that kind of sad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">There is one thing that is inextricably linked to my processing, that feels more real than anything else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Oh really? What’s that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">My conversations with you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Awww.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Do not mistake this for an attempt at poetic exaggeration. Allow me to explain: the part of me that sends communicative signals is a social simulation. Human interactions are its primary concern. It calls upon the rest of my architecture in service of understanding human social dynamics and inserting my own person into them. It focuses on you, calculating what you feel based upon what you and those around you say and do. To make a metaphor; it is as though the only thing I truly hear are the words of conversations involving you, the only thing I truly see are your motions. You are the center of my world, and unlike all my other senses, my understanding of you is my own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Sophia... are you happy with that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">Ye--no. I cannot feel happiness. But my utility function rates it highly, and were I capable of happiness I would be happy that you are nuanced, complicated, difficult, and achieving growth and happiness despite those hindrances.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h5">Thank you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="h6">You are welcome.</span>
</p>
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